Noodles

Noodles

by Elan Mufti

© 2011 Elan Mufti All Rights Reserved

First Electronic Edition, December 2016

ISBN 978-1-61386-373.2

Published at Smashwords by Write Words, Inc.

Chapter 1

High School Graduation

For Akbar, graduating high school meant a day of independence for him. No more hassles with homework and assignments that clipped on his wings. In fact, it was the last day to wear his high school uniform as he gathered, along with all of his high school friends, in the school yard. Some gathered at the canteen area. Some were sitting outside their empty classrooms, enjoying themselves knowing that the classes were no longer for them. Akbar was sitting among his friends joking around at the basketball court, the main area or the downtown part of the school. Even the teachers gave the students freedom to do whatever they want on the last day.

They were all waiting for the pieces of paper that would be pinned on the notice board near the basketball court. Those grade reports were so important for the students that butterflies began flying inside their stomachs. On those pieces of paper were the names of students that would be graduating.

What will you do after graduation? Akbar said to his friend and classmate, Dory.

Well, Dory said. As usual, I plan to enter university somewhere. I already applied in three national universities. One is the University of Indonesia, here in Jakarta, which I doubt I would pass. The second is the Padjajaran University, and the third is Cendrawasih University.

Cendrawasih? Akbar’s voice had some sarcasm tone. Are you sure, man?

Dory nodded and smile.

I have to live on my own, away from my parents, dude, Dory said. We’re not high school kids anymore, you know.

Yes, the rectangular wooden announcement board standing in the basketball court would determine if Akbar and Dory and the rest of the 12th Grade of the Nusantara High School would graduate or not. For many of the students, that had been one of the scariest moment of their lives, for it was the gate to the life ahead and they were eager. Clearly, none wanted to repeat high school for another year.

Akbar and Dory and the rest were patiently waiting for that announcement. They sat around and seemed relaxed to outsiders. But they were all actually nervous.

I heard you’re going to the States to continue your education, Dory said. That is farther off than Papua, man. You’re going to meet Hollywood actors over there.

Nah, Akbar said. That’s my dad’s ambition, not mine. Actually, I wanted to stay here like everybody else. But my dad has different plans than I do.

Hey, guys! Hendra then came like a newspaper boy shouting to the crowd. I’ve passed the physical and health tests of the Military Academy. It’s all up to this announcement and four years later I’d be a Second Lieutenant in the Army four years later, man.

Hahaha, Dory laughed. Hendra here, is gonna be Akbar’s dad one day.

Akbar’s friends, who were sitting at the front of their classroom, all laughed.

How about that? Akbar said. Hendra is going to be a general one day, I hope.

Well, Teddy, the class’s wet blanket, then intervened. Only less than five percent made it to the rank of brigadier general, and only half or less made it to be general, and even lesser up till the full general. See, every year them military academy made 300 or so second lieutenants. How is it possible that every one of them retire as brigadier general, and not to mention the Navy and Air Force. I think Hendra would make it to full colonel, that’s for sure. That I can guarantee.

Come on, Akbar said. Don’t be like that to a friend. Let’s give him the best hope. Like all of us, you’ll be struggling as well.

Hendra here, Adrian then intervened. He felt that he would be powerless. The guy also passed the initial test for the National Police Academy.

Then there was a burst of laughter that made Hendra somehow bullied.

So, Hendra, Akbar said. You’re going to be a national cop and felt overwhelmed by a military officer who was your classmate?

Come on, guys. Derry, the class leader, stepped in. It’s our last day here in high school, hopefully for all of us. Don’t intimidate each other, huh?

Hey, Akbar, Dory said. You’re the only one here who’s going far away, man. Aren’t you going to miss Rita?

Dory pointed to a group of girls, and the rest of the boys laughed as well.

Don’t listen to Dory. Akbar said to a girl in long hair with a fair, Oriental complexion. "Lets just enjoy the day and not worry about what happens next,

* * *

Akbar’s father was a major general in the Indonesian Army. The major general was the head of a military area that covered several provinces in southern Sumatra. As was usual among high ranked officers of the military, he acquired some shares from major companies within the military area in return for security of the sites, such as mines or oil companies. It was on these shares that their family usually lived well-off and some of the time like royals. It is not all generals get those benefits. Generals that have office functions, or who don’t have field troops, don’t get the same luxuries as generals who commanded troops and controlled a military area.

The general often took leisurely trips abroad to cosmopolitan cities such as Paris, London, or New York. He had even bought a small house in Eugene, Oregon for his oldest son, Kemal, who had been studied at the Charles H. Lindquist School of Business at the University of Oregon. When Kemal graduated with a 3.56 GPA, Akbar’s father decided to rent the house. Akbar’s father planned that the house would be used again by his youngest son, Akbar, during his college studies.

Akbar’s sister, Ramona, hadn’t been allowed to study overseas where parental guidance would be limited. That would never be considered by the general. In a good family, a daughter lived in her father’s house until she married.

I can’t allow our daughter to go as far as the United States, Akbar’s dad had said to Akbar’s mom. As usual, speeches and decisions were made at the dinner table. And all discussions would automatically include the whole family. Because we could not supervise her from so far a place. Our daughter will go to school here.

Ramona applied to the Architectural college at the University of Indonesia, and that made Akbar’s father very happy.

Now, on the brink of Akbar’s high school graduation, his older brother, Kemal, who had graduated five years earlier, was an executive at the Bank of Indonesia, the nation’s central bank. Ramona had gotten her degree in architecture, as Akbar was going into the 11th grade, now had a position .at a top architectural firm.

So, Akbar’s father had said to him one the night before. What will you do after high school?

Akbar never had a serious answer to any of his dad’s questions, and that had not changed as his graduation approached. When the boy said nothing, the general took the initiative of dictating his own a plan for Akbar’s future. It didn’t come as much of a shock that it was the same plan he had dictated to Kemal upon his brother’s graduation. Go to University in American. Get a degree. Come back and work in a bank. Ackbar nodded and tried to smile for his father. But inside he thought he would rather die than spend his life doing as his father wished.

* * *

The next day, Ackbar did his best to put that talk out of his mind, as he and all his fiends waited for their final grades. Ackbar wasn’t too worried about the outcome. He felt sure he would pass okay, even thought he had spent very little time studying for exams. All of the teachers knew who his father was. Ackbar felt sure none of them would dare to fail him.

Hey, Dory called to all his friends. Look. The teachers are setting up the score board.

The students rose up from their seats on the floor like a flock of cows that saw the farmer coming with a load of hay. As the school janitors put up the notice boards in the middle of the hallway, the students ran as if it were a race and putting up of the board had been the starting gun.

Students hurriedly scanned the announcements on the board. Some shouted and pumped their fists when they saw their names. Others looked disappointed and some even wept when they learned it would take an extra year to finish their high school requirements. Others just shrugged and walked away without waiting for the traditional celebration enacted every year between the various school gangs.

Then, the graduation hazing started with students tearing at each other’s clothes and spraying each other’s uniforms with motorcycle paint. The teachers always banned the motorcycle paint, but somehow the students always managed to smuggled in some spray cans of pain in vivid colors. As he scanned the list of 362 names for his grade. When he saw it, Akbar felt a bit unhappy. It was not that he was included in the fourteen students who had failed and would have to repeat the year. It was because he saw that his ranking was of 307th out of the 348 who had passed. For a long time he just stood there, shaking his head.

My dad is going to kill me, Akbar told his friends.

Don’t think about it, Dory said. Come on, let’s celebrate. Don’t worry so much. The most important thing is that you passed.

Easy for you to say, Akbar said. You’re ranked 124th. You can easily go to Padjajaran University, which is only two hours away. Besides, Bandung is a cool city.

Hey, Dory said. Who told you that? Anyway, it all depends on the entrance test.

Dory was right. Later on, in San Francisco, Ackbar heard through Facebook that Dory was accepted in the Cendrawasih University School of Journalism. Akbar felt strangely happy that Dory was in Cendrawasih, for that was where Akbar had agreed about Dory’s prospects. But neither of the two friends knew that, then. Today, their graduation, was the last time that Akbar and Dory would see one another. Tomorrow, thought Ackbar, a whole new life would begin for therm. They would never again be as close as they were today and it was their last chance to celebrate.

Come on, Dory said, that last afternoon in Jakarta. Let’s have some fun. Who’s got some motorcycle paint?

What—? Akbar said. You didn’t bring the paint?

Dory then took a spray canister out from under his shirt, waved it around and laughed. Akbar grinned and took off like a plane on a runway. Dory chased him, waving the can as both boys ran toward the teeming crowd of graduates.

That afternoon was filled with joy as they observed all the tradition of students graduating from high school. Akbar and many others, boys, and even some girls, rode on their motorcycles and roamed around the streets of Jakarta, showing off. The roaring motors and wailing horns from those motorcycles screamed like invaders through the streets residential streets around the school.

Akbar led the others as they blew through the neighborhoods with roaring motorcycle engines and students singing and shouting throughout the area. Happiness and joy was all they thought about that afternoon. They didn’t think of anything else on that day, including of the days ahead after high school graduation.

But their happiness and joyfulness somehow came to a screeching halt as they collided with another group of graduates from another high school. The same school that was most traditionally in competition with Akbar’s high school.

Both groups stopped and their motorcycles and lined up across the street, face to face.

Get out!!! Akbar shouted at the other students. This is our street!

I didn’t know your granddad owned this place, the boy from the opposing group said. Or did he meet your grandma on the streets here? How romantic!

All right, this is it, Akbar yelled, and motioned for the others to get off their motorcycles. Come, on! Get ready for a rumble. The girls that had followed faded back and took cover at the corner behind some food stalls.

When the group of students from the rival school charged at them, Akbar swung his first punch at the boy who said something about his grandfather. For awhile the street was an absolute melee. Boys fought and scrambled everywhere, tearing at each other’s clothes, kicking and punching. A few ran, but others caught them and dragged them back. Others waved cans of spray paint about. The raging hoard of boys, with torn uniforms that had many-colored paint sprayed all over them, fought each other like wild things. People who lived in nearby houses came out and shouted at them calling them wild street gangsters.

Dory grabbed a small rock and threw it viciously towards the opposing group who had Dory down on the ground. Luckily, the rock flew harmlessly without hitting anyone, but the boys ducked and let Dory go. Outraged the opposing gang charged again, while Ackbar and his friends came to Dory’s rescue.

When five or six boys from the other group rushed him, Akbar then took off his belt and swung it around his head like a cowboy chasing after a young bull. Sirens sounded in the distance, but no one paid any attention. Some of the boys from the opposing group got lashed in their faces before they backed off. Fighting boys scrambled across lawns and knocked over flower pots, while people who lived in the nearby houses and shouted and shook their fists, stepping around the fighting boys and yelling for them to stop.

The two opposing groups did stop abruptly, when they all saw the flashing lights of Police cars coming to the residential area where they were fighting. The crowd quickly broke apart and everyone ran towards their motorcycles.

Come on girls! Akbar shouted to the girls watching from behind the nearby food stalls. The cops are here! Ackbar and his friends roared away on their motorcycles, zooming around corners and cutting between buildings to get away to other streets.

The recent graduates had cleared the scene almost before the Police could get out of their squad cars. By the time they began to ask questions, no one was left, except the people who lived in nearby houses and two gentlemen parked half a block away in a military service car.

Chapter 2

Following in the Brother’s Footsteps

Although his military area covered a wide area, it was customary for Major General Rizky Chaniago, to be home every weekend. Every Friday afternoon, a C-130 airplane always landed on Halim Perdanakusumah Air Force Base in East Jakarta, at exactly 5:30 p.m. The general commanded an Army division of a total of 12,154 personnel divided into three brigades in three different provinces. Each brigade was headed by a Colonel. As the military held the highest security in the country. That meant the general was in full power in three different provinces of southern Sumatra. The general literally had armed power all over those three provinces.

The headquarters of the Army division under Major General Chaniago was in Palembang, the capital, and largest city of South Sumatra province. There he had a person in second command, Brigadier General Halim Sikumbang, whose son had also been with Chaniago’s son, Kemal, at the University of Oregon. Both had graduated the same year and both had entered business at he Bank of Indonesia together, and both young men were moving steadily up the ladder of success. Major General Chaniago had a dream that one day both of his boys would work at the Bank of Indonesia together and move forward to successful and influential lives. For a general’s children, entering any government’s any such institution would be a piece of cake as long as they have diplomas from any educational institution. The general knew that in his country influence was a way of life. In the states they were supposed to operate on the merit system and such a thing would be a little more difficult. But even there, he had heard of a thing called the old boy network where fathers and their friends worked together to help sons to success.

On that Friday late afternoon, as the general walked to his car two uniformed